A-England Avalon

I got a purple in the post Friday, that is so gorgeous I HAD to make it my next manicure so here it is.  It is A-England's stunning Avalon.  I was so excited to try one of these polishes, I have seen swatches and heard good things, but most of all I wanted to try them because my patriotic side was prodding me and whispering 'its an English nail polish, you MUST try it!'.  Well, who am I to argue with subconscious me, so I ordered Avalon and waited with baited breath until it arrived.

Well this is definitely a hard one to capture on film, its not 'just a purple' its actually a bit more complex than that. If I look really closely in direct sunlight, I can actually see tiny particles of colour which make up the overall predominant purple.  I can see both red and blue in the mix, and this has a subtle shift depending on the light.  Sometimes it looks like a red based purple, as it does in the sunlight pic, but in the shade it takes on a darker blue based purple hue.  Its a really interesting polish with a glowy look and depth to it, and I don't think I have anything quite like it.  The pics are only two coats, although I usually go for three it is quite a saturated colour so I stopped at two.  The coverage was a little patchy on the first coat but evened out nicely on the second and the brush made application easy.  The only bugbear I have is it has a longer drying time than I would have liked, even with OPI rapid dry top coat.  It is worth it for the jewelled purple colour it bestows on your nails though, and as a purple lover of course I love it, but it is really is an enchanting colour that you just have to see in reality to appreciate it fully.  On with the pics!

Sunlight, look at that shimmer!  Red based purple right?

Natural daylight, deeper blue based purple now!

W7 - Metallics Planets Collection, Cheap AND Duochrome! Oh Yes!

Well as you all know I LOVE all things duochrome and multichrome, and so on my never ending quest to find new ones I came across some new W7 polishes that I hadn't seen before.  These were six shades all called 'Metallic ......' and then a different planet for each polish.  They looked nice in the pics on the website so of course I HAD to buy some! I ordered Metallic Mars, Venus, Mercury and Jupiter.  There was also Neptune which appears to be a dark navy blue, and Saturn, which is a green based one but I didn't order those ones this time.  Check out the bottles pic from when they arrived.

Pretty, right!  From left to right you have Metallic Mars, Metallic Venus, Metallic Mercury and Metallic Jupiter.  I couldn't wait to try them all individually so I swatched them all on one hand.  The Mars and Venus ones are the sheer type colours that need to be layered over another colour (darker colours seem to work best) so I applied two layers over black.  Mercury and Jupiter are actually sparkly shimmers in a dark base, and these can be applied on their own.

Mars is a red toned pink, to purple to gold colour shift polish, Venus is blue to purple with the occasional bronze hue flashing into view.  Mercury and Jupiter have a more subtle colour shift and are darker shades with a lovely sparkle.  Mercury shifts from a dark pink to purple to gold, and Jupiter dark blue to dark purple.  To my eye Mercury and Jupiter look like they are the darker glittery versions of the first two, but with such a different look that they totally warrant buying all four.

For my pics I applied two coats each of Mars and Venus over a black creme base, and three coats of Mercury and Jupiter without any 'underwear'.  The formula was actually quite good, it felt maybe a little thin but not really a problem, and it dried pretty quickly.  The brushes were quite nice too, providing even coverage, and these did feel like they should have cost more than the measly £1.95 (including postage!) I paid for each of them.  I am posting two pics which illustrate the colour shift in these, please forgive the sloppy application but I was so excited to try these out and show you all!  Bargain duochromes, yes please!  If you would like to buy some I don't know about my international readers (sorry!) but for the UK readers I bought mine from Nail Polish Direct where I have ordered lots of times now and always had good service, and they have pretty good prices on their polishes.  Can I just say I am not affiliated with them in any way, I just like their shop!

Right then, lets get on with it, and take a look at the pics.  With all the buzz going round at the moment about duochromes will you be buying these?  I think I discovered some little gems personally, I hope you think so too :)

Left to Right - Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter

Left to Right - Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter

OPI - Gettin' Miss Piggy With It

I love the muppets, and I am loving these Muppets Collection polishes.  Today I want to show you Gettin' Miss Piggy With It.  This one is red glitter, with small red glitter and large pink toned red and silver glitter suspended in a clear base.  I have heard some say that this took lots of layers for full opacity and would be better as a layering polish, so I went for the second option.  I searched my stash and tried to choose a red that was close in colour, and I came up with OPI Thanks so Muchness to use as underwear and it turned out to be a good combination.  The formula in Gettin' Miss Piggy With It was good, dried quickly between coats and went on without problem.  The larger glitter dispersed well too, without having to chase it round the nail too much to get it on there.  I layered three coats over my red base coat, and doesn't it look festive!  It is really sparkly, although a little hungry and took a good dollop of top coat but it was worth it and got me lots of compliments (which is always nice!).

Sadly I couldn't get a pic in the sunshine, because we don't have any at the moment, dull dull, more dull, with some grey thrown in is the best its been, so the pics is in natural daylight only.  Hopefully the blast of glitter makes up for the lack of sunshine!

OPI DS Temptation

I was still in a glitter mood so I decided that I couldn't wait any longer and really needed to try out DS Temptation.  As someone once said, 'I can resist anything except temptation', my sentiments exactly!  This is a lovely polish, its not the holographic finish that everyone has come to expect from the Designer Series but it is gorgeous nonetheless.  It has mutli colours of predominantly purple with magenta and silver tiny glitter particles suspended in a blue purple base.  The overall effect is stunning and one of those which I can't keep from looking at my nails, especially when the light catches them and they are sparkling away like something magical.

It did dry a little rough, and I needed to put a couple of generous layers of top coat on, but nothing bad for a glitter.  The formula was fine, not at all goopy and application was a breeze.  I applied three thin coats but I could have gotten away with two generous ones, but having said that if the polish does thicken up over time as polishes tend to do, then two coats would be fine.

So overall I do love this polish, but is it special enough to warrant the higher price tag that the DS series demands?  In my honest opinion, no it isn't but it is still a beautiful polish and one I'm glad I have.  If I knew before I bought it what I know now would I still have bought it?  Hell yes!  On with the pics (which as usual are click-able) sit back, relax and enjoy the awesome purple prettiness :)

Sunlight

Shade, natural daylight

Nubar Petunia Sparkle

Let me start by saying I freaking LOVE this colour!  It is a hot magenta glitter with purple leanings, it is absolutely packed with micro glitter and I just adore it.  I try to give a balanced opinion but there is nothing I didn't like about this polish, really.  The brush is nice and applies the polish evenly, and the cap is easy to hold and work with.  The colour is very saturated, the formula is not too thick and applies easily, and the end result on my pics was achieved after only two good coats.  Let me see, is there a downside?  Only one really, but its common in a LOT of glitters, and that was it dried a little rough and took a good couple of coats of top coat to even it out and give it a nice shine.  Certainly not the most 'hungry' glitter I have come across though, and no biggie to me.  Theres not a lot else I can say about this one except, here are the pictures, they speak louder than words can in this case and as usual are clickable.  One final word for this polish would have to be, BAM!

Sunlight

Natural daylight